Please act now. Parliament is voting on this issue on Monday 26th October.

How to email your MP

1. Go to Friends of the Earth’s “Contact your MP” page and enter your postcode: http://www.foe.co.uk/community/resource/contact_mp.html
2. Choose “Email this MP”
3. Paste in the text under the “Suggested Letter” heading, remembering to add your MP’s name at the top and your own name at the bottom.

You can also visit your MP in your constituency this weekend (Friday/Saturday). Telephone your MP’s constituency office to find out whether this is possible.

Suggested Letter

Dear [MP Name],

Amendment 3 to Report Stage of Marine and Coastal Access Bill

I am asking for your support for Amendment 3 tabled by Katy Clark MP to the Report Stage of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill on Monday 26th October in the House of Commons. Amendment 3 relates to Clause 117 of the Bill, and reads:

Clause 117 : Grounds for the designation of MCZs (Amendment in bold)

(1) The appropriate authority may make an order under section 116 if it thinks that it is desirable to do so for the purpose of conserving -

(a) marine flora and fauna;
(b) marine habitats or types of marine habitat;
(c) features of geological or geomorphological interest;
(d) the marine ecosystem as a whole.

This amendment is concerned with placing highly protected marine reserves on the face of the Act. The protection of “the marine ecosystem as a whole” is the agreed definition of a highly protected marine reserve. The Government and the front bench of other parties have declared their commitment to highly protected marine reserves, but do not want a duty in law placed upon them to create such reserves. This amendment respects that declaration. Instead, it simply establishes a power to create highly protected reserves, without any duty to do so being placed on the Secretary of State.

Highly protected marine reserves are a key tool in the rebuilding of fish stocks and the repair of seriously damaged marine ecosystems. This amendment ensures that this tool will exist in law. It can only be used by the Secretary of State to protect fish stocks within the 6 nautical mile limit, but its existence in UK law will enable the Government to persuade the EU that a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy should embrace a similar power to protect our fish stocks from 6 nautical miles out to 200 nautical miles. This is a first step to secure this important change to the CFP.

As I say, Amendment 3 only creates a power and not a duty on the Secretary of State. So, may I ask you to consider placing your name to Amendment 3 on the Order Paper for Report Stage on 26th October, and that you will be in the House on that day to vote for Amendment 3.

Yours sincerely,

The Background

Our earlier advice to you about writing to your MP to ask him/her to support the amendment of Clause 123 of the Marine Bill no longer applies. The members of the Wildlife and Countryside Link with whom we were in partnership on this amendment now no longer want to push the amendment to Clause 123 to the vote. Thus, highly protected marine reserves will not be placed on the face of the Bill or become a legal entity by this means. MARINET is therefore withdrawing from the Clause 123 amendment.

The good news, we have managed to table an entirely new amendment which will be a Voting Amendment i.e. the wording will be on the fact of the Act and will have legal force. This is an amendment to Clause 117. It is being tabled by Katy Clark MP, and full details are in the attached letter we want you to send to your MP.

This amendment, known as Amendment 3 on the House of Commons Order Paper for the Report Stage of the Bill, will be debated and voted upon on Monday, 26th October.

As you will appreciate, this is only 7 days away. We therefore need you to act immediately in sending your letter to your MP asking him/her to vote for Amendment 3 on Monday 26th October.

Your need to act now is made more urgent by the fact that there is a Postal Strike on Thursday 22nd / Friday 23rd October. Your letter must arrive with your MP by Friday 23rd October. Therefore the options for you to get your message to your MP are:

1. Send your letter first class by the last post on Tuesday 20th October to guarantee postal delivery. The postal address of the House of Commons is Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
2. Send you letter in an email to your MP, explaining that you are doing so because of the postal strike. The email address of most MPs is their surname followed the initial of their first christian name. Thus if your MP’s name is John Brown, his email address is brownj@parliament.uk Nearly all MPs use this address system, but the odd one does not. If you find your email is returned undelivered, visit http://www.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/mps_and_lords/alms.cfm where you will be able to obtain the email address (Click on the first letter of the MP’s surname on the key facility, and then scroll across to the right to visit the foot of the page of their parliamentary biographical details, or visit their website). Any difficulty, contact me.
3. You can visit your MP in your consituency this weekend (Friday/Saturday). Telephone your MP’s constituency office to find out whether this is possible.

The key thing is that you get your letter to your MP by this weekend (Friday), as the vote is on the Monday.

The letter you send will need you to enter your address, the date, the name of the MP and your signature. All else is covered. The letter is attached, see document titled K Clark amendment supporters letter to MP 18 Oct 09.doc

We can win this vote on Amendment 3 to Clause 117. We – that is you, collectively – are now in control of the amendment of the Marine Bill to get it to include highly protected marine reserves as a legal entity. The other marine NGOs are no longer interested. It is therefore down to us. Katy Clark MP, our amendmend sponsor, will be contacting the MPs who signed EDM 337 and have thus called for highly protected marine reserves (225 MPs) and if you, all of you, can contact your MP and get them to vote on Monday 26th then we will have a majority.

If you have friends or family members who can contact another MP, in a neighbouring consituency or elsewhere, please send them the attached MARINET letter and get them to send it to their MP. The vote of every MP will count on 26th October.

So, here we are. Crunch-day is approaching. The campaign has swung this way and that, and many obstacles have been thrown in our path. But, if we can win the vote on Monday 26th, then we have won.

Therefore, apologies for this late twist in events, but everything is down to you now. Please send that letter.

Our sincerest thanks from the Campaign Team, and get in touch with me if you need anything.

Regards,
Stephen Eades
stephen.eades@marinereserves.org.uk

Manchester FoE have designed a postcard to be sent to MPs asking them to sign EDM 337 and write to Huw Irranca-Davies, the Minister responsible for the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, calling on him to strengthen the legislation.

If your MP hasn’t yet signed, why not send them the postcard?

• Draft letter to Tory MP
• Draft letter to Lib Dem MP
• Draft letter to Labour MP

He outlined DEFRA’s view of the bill and fielded a wide range of questions, which he declared “was good practice for future encounters with Parliamentarians.”

A full transcription of the meeting is now available.

Quentin Given, Sue Penny and Fran Acheson meet David Lammy MP

Members of the Tottenham & Wood Green Friends of the Earth local group visited their MP, David Lammy yesterday to lobby for 30% of UK seas to be made Highly Protected Marine Reserves.

Mr Lammy was presented with some mounted chocolate fish to commemorate the occasion.

“The government has made a good step forward with the Marine and Coastal Access Bill,” said Quentin Given, of Tottenham Friends of the Earth, “But we want it to take a further step and create a network of safe havens for endangered fish species all around our coasts.”

David Lammy said, “People in Tottenham take this issue seriously. Many come from countries with important marine reserves and even though we live in an urban community, the health of our seas connects us across continents. I look forward to taking this issue to Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Milliband.”

We hope this experience is repeated hundreds of times up and down the country as local groups press home the issue with their MPs.

That this House notes the recommendation made by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in their 25th Report in 2004 that a widespread network of highly protected marine reserves throughout all UK seas is an important marine management tool which is required in order to rebuild UK commercial fish stocks and to halt the serious damage being caused to marine ecosystems; and calls upon the Government to develop selection criteria under the Marine Bill for establishing a network of protected marine areas based around science-based decision making.

Details of the EDM and which MPs have signed it can be found on the Early Day Motions website. Please look to see if your MP has signed and if they haven’t, why not write them a letter asking them to?

We want to build a large body of support for amendments to the Bill when they are tabled, so that, if at all possible, the government will see they are part of a wide consensus and therefore may be incorporated without the need for a vote. Hence the importance of persuading your MP to sign the EDM. The EDM has cross-party support.